2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Media?

The goal was to penetrate the lifestyle space. We wanted to use a media platform that was part of our target audience’s key interests. Therefore, we innovated in the music space by adding Anghami to our media mix. We used this media platform to deliver the first real-time weather based dynamic ads specifically tailored to each user with their own name. This allowed us to generate engagement, and a more direct, faster path to conversion. Encompassing audio, 60% of our media budgets were focused on mobile – which we used to strategically target ads in warm locations using geo-fencing technology.

Background

With temperatures in the UAE rising to 52 degrees, Axe introduced its new Axe ice-chill which decreases body temperature by 6 degrees. Axe was looking to penetrate the market through the lifestyle space, with messaging around supporting men to be the best version of themselves to approach the opposite sex. Axe’s messaging was to tell men to “chill out” instead of trying too hard. Our main objectives were to: increase awareness, consideration, and conversion with Axe’s core audiences. Axe needed to create a niche for itself that helps the brand establish its own claim and better connect to males in the market to drive them toward conversion. The focus was on identifying the right platform/technology to empower our audiences and deliver them messages during the day. The brand message through the campaign was “you’re hotter when you’re chill”.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

Music, a known mood booster, is a key interest for 60% of our demographic (Facebook Data). Moreover, music streaming has been on the rise in the UAE with CAGR of 9.5% from 2020 to 2027 (Reportlinker). This made us keen to include audio streaming in our media mix for Axe Chill, in addition to our digital and integrated media plans. Therefore, as part of this campaign we partnered with Anghami – the most popular on-demand music streaming app in MENA with over 73M registered users. This partnership powered us with a strong platform, technology, and data to bring together the first real-time weather based dynamic ads specifically tailored to each user with their own name. On the creative spectrum our campaign focused on research based insight that men usually fail to impress women when they try too hard. This insight formed the basis of our messaging.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The target audience was Males - 15-34, who spent most of their time on mobile phones. We focused on cohort segments such as: Gaming, Music, Fitness, Generic etc. Our total audience size formed 83% of the demographic audience, categorized by interests, allowing us to create specific messaging. Overlap was 20%. Our focus was driving awareness and creating social interaction by empowering our audience through self-confidence messaging during different stages of the day. We implemented an in-depth strategy across 3 different Native mobile platforms: 1. Video - Reach based video planning to drive our penetration among males and raise awareness of our claim. 2. Content - Publisher partnerships such as Lovin Dubai to establish our story by creating comical content videos 3. Weather Based Execution - Leveraging weather conditions and tying back to the functional aspect of dropping body temperature to convert the audience using dynamic ads based on contextual focus

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Over 60% of budgets were focused on mobile. Our key publisher partners helped create targeted ads in hot locations using geo-fencing technology. 1. Deployed dynamic banners triggered by real-time weather and humidity ran on popular online portals and programmatic inventory. 2. Launched the first weather-based dynamic audio ads with Anghami to generate engagement, more direct and faster path to conversion 3. Promoted a range of content communication passion points such as gaming, music, sport as well as different cohorts on the product benefits through our mobile-driven content engine 4. Deployed Funny memes and gifs, inspired from local insights and behaviors of guys when impressing a girl, throughout the campaign on platforms like Lovin’ Dubai, whom we partnered with, helped drive visibility for AXE Ice Chill even further. (Instagram focus) The timeline for execution was: Sep - Nov 2019 for Gulf

List the results (30% of vote)

Through the Axe Chill campaign we saw both performance and business success, and most importantly achieved our brand KPIs. With this dynamic and targeted approach brand awareness increased across our target audience, with an increase of 18% on InMobi and 20% on Anghami. Moreover, ad recall surpassed our nearest competitor as per surveyed audience: 17% Ad Recall Up-lift on YT Trueview BLS 11% Ad Recall Up-lift on YT Bumper Ads We also saw great increase in our conversion KPIs: +20% Brand Favorability lift on Anghami +11% Purchase Intent lift on Anghami +8% Brand Preference lift on InMobi +13% Purchase Intent lift on InMobi Making this campaign an ultimate success Axe gained market share too through Axe Ice Chill! Axe grew by 11 BPS in the UAE and 6 BPS across the Gulf.